Saturday, June 10, 2017

NEWPORT, Ohio (WTAP) - A Newport man is hospitalized after crashing an aircraft Saturday morning.Washington County Sheriff Larry Mincks says a call came in that an aircraft had crashed into the guardrail on State Route 7 north of Newport.Mincks says his office responded along with the Newport Volunteer Fire Department and the Ohio State Highway Patrol.Mincks says Roger Murphy was piloting the aircraft at the time of the accident.After taking off Murphy had to take the aircraft down when it started having problems.The aircraft is not believed to be very far off the ground at the time.Murphy was taken to Marietta Memorial Hospital with non-life threatening injuries.Murphy's brother says he is lucky to be alive.The Ohio State Highway Patrol is investigating the accident and the Federal Aviation Administration has been notified.Original article can be found here: http://www.thenewscenter.tv

Jennifer Lawrence is safe after a private plane in which she was riding was forced to make an emergency landing in Buffalo, New York on Saturday.A rep for the actress confirmed to ABC News that “The Hunger Games" star was leaving her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky on Saturday after visiting family.While mid-flight at 31,000 feet, one of the private plane's engines failed, the rep confirmed, causing the pilots to make the emergency landing in Buffalo.During the emergency landing, the plane’s second engine failed, the rep confirmed.The FAA, which traditionally does not release the names of those on board flights, released a statement Sunday about the incident."A Hawker Beechcraft B40 aircraft landed safely at Buffalo Niagara International Airport in New York at about 1:40 pm on Saturday," the statement read. "The crew diverted to Buffalo when they declared an emergency due to engine-related issues. The flight was heading to Teterboro Airport in New Jersey from Louisville, Kentucky."The statement added that the FAA "will investigate" the incident.The Oscar winner left the alarming incident uninjured, her rep confirmed, despite emergency vehicles awaiting the plane as it landed.ABC News aviation expert Col. Steve Ganyard said that if all details prove to be true, this is an "extremely rare" incident."Airplanes have two engines because occasionally one fails, but two [engines] are not supposed to fail," he said.Ganyard added that without all of the details, it's hard to determine how serious the incident was."But anytime you have both engines on a twin-engine airplane stop working, it obviously has the potential for disaster," he said. Original article can be found here: http://abcnews.go.com

NTSB Identification: WPR17FA125 14 CFR Part 91: General AviationAccident occurred Friday, June 09, 2017 in Mountain Ranch, CAAircraft: BEECH 95 C55, registration: N3717QInjuries: 1 Fatal.This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed. NTSB investigators either traveled in support of this investigation or conducted a significant amount of investigative work without any travel, and used data obtained from various sources to prepare this aircraft accident report.On June 9, 2017, at an unknown time, a Beech 95-C55, N3717Q, impact heavily forested terrain near Mountain Ranch, California. The pilot/owner operated the airplane as a 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 personal flight. The pilot was fatally injured, and the airplane was destroyed. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed in the area of the accident site and no flight plan was filed. The flight departed Del Mar Farms Airport (CN99), Patterson, California, at 1355 and was destined for Columbia Airport (O22), Columbia, California. A family concerned ALNOT (Alert Notification) was issued when the pilot did not arrive at Columbia Airport. They estimated the flight to be about 20 minutes.The airplane was located by the Calaveras County Sheriff's Department on June 13, 2017. The airplane came to rest inverted on a 65-degree slope, and was fragmented. The debris field extended from the top of the hill down toward a dry creek bed, with vegetation in the immediate vicinity of the empennage a brown discoloration consistent with fuel blight. The right engine remained with the main wreckage at the top of the hill. The left engine and fragments of the left wing were downhill, and the outboard two-feet of the left-wing tip were about 10 feet east of the wing and engine.The airplane was recovered for further examination.

Those who may have information that might be relevant to the National Transportation Safety Board investigation may contact them by email eyewitnessreport@ntsb.gov, and any friends and family who want to contact investigators about the accident should email assistance@ntsb.gov.

LEROY DEL DON JR.February 5, 1942 - June13, 2017

LeRoy Del Don Jr. was born February 5th 1942 in Modesto, CA to his parents, LeRoy Sr. and Elizabeth Mae Del Don. LeRoy married Sandy Del Don in 1960. They had three children, Lee, Lesa and Dalton.

LeRoy followed in his father's footsteps and was a well respected farmer on the Westside for the past 60 years. He made fond memories with great friends while enjoying his life-long passion of flying.

LeRoy was always known for bringing a smile to one's face and living life to its fullest. Nothing made LeRoy more proud than his family.

LeRoy is survived by his loving wife Sandy, his oldest son Lee (Debra), daughter Lesa Del Don, youngest son Dalton (Carli), sister Carol Goldberg (Neil) of Kirkland, WA, 7 grandchildren and 6 great grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his parents, LeRoy Sr. and Elizabeth Mae Del Don.

A celebration of life will be held between 4-8pm on June 24th at Sky Trek Aviation, located at the Modesto Airport.

LeRoy Del Don

A pilot who was reported missing after his plane took off from an airstrip in Patterson was found dead Tuesday, the Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office.AdvertisementLeroy Del Don, 75, was found in the wreckage of a twin-engine Beechcraft plane in a mountainous location in the Calaveras County town of Mountain Ranch.While Del Don and the plane that was found have not been positively identified, “circumstantial evidence indicated that the wreckage was that of the missing Beechcraft,” the sheriff's office said.Del Don was reported missing Friday evening by a family member after he didn’t arrived at Columbia Airport with his personal aircraft, according to the Tuolumne County Sheriff's Office.Del Don planned to fly directly to Columbia Airport, which he has done numerous times, and get into a vehicle waiting for him at the hangar and drive to Pinecrest.When Del Don didn't arrive in Pinecrest as planned, his wife became worried and had a friend check the hanger, where they found the vehicle, but Del Don's plane wasn't there, the sheriff's office said.A search team reported seeing plane debris around noon Tuesday. The aircraft was found about a mile from the crash site, the Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office said. The plane appeared to have crashed into one or more trees before coming stopping on a steep hillside.The crash was discovered about a mile south of Del Don’s last known radar point.Del Don had extensive flying experience and had been flying for more than 40 years. He was a flight instructor and had no known medical issues.The cause of the crash is unknown.Investigators are still at the scene and will work with the National Transportation Safety Board when officials arrive Wednesday.No other details were released.Original article can be found here: http://www.kcra.comSAN ANDREAS — Wreckage of a small plane was found, as was a body, located one mile south of the last known radar point of missing pilot LeRoy Del Don, the Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office said.It was announced late Tuesday that a search team had reported finding possible aircraft debris about noon earlier in the day.The area of the site was described by authorities as being densely wooded and steep, and the aircraft, they said, appeared to have collided with one or more trees before coming to rest on a steep hillside. The plane was last spotted on radar west of remote Mountain Ranch in Calaveras County.Due to the condition of the wreckage, deputies could not positively identify either the aircraft or the occupant as being the missing Beechcraft and Del Don.Circumstantial evidence, however, indicated that the wreckage was that of the missing aircraft, authorities said.Del Don, 75, departed alone in a 1967 Beechcraft Baron — a twin-engine propeller-driven plane — about 2 p.m. Friday from a private airstrip near Westley in Stanislaus County.John Suiter experiences free falling in Superfly, a portable wind tunnel at the San Joaquin Fair. Recordnet.comDel Don is described as being an experienced pilot and flight instructor with no known medical issues who has flown to Columbia numerous times. He was expected to drive a vehicle waiting for him in an airport hanger to Pinecrest, according to The Modesto Bee.When he did not arrive in Pinecrest as planned Friday evening, his wife became worried and had a friend check the Columbia hangar. The plane was not there, but the vehicle was, The Bee reported.An investigation is underway.Original article can be found here: http://www.recordnet.com

Tuolumne County Sheriff's Office: Update June 02, 2017The search for Leroy Del Don is ongoing. Search and Rescue teams from the Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office, Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Office, and Amador County Sheriff's Office, as well as aircraft from the California Highway Patrol and Civil Air Patrol have been extensively searching the area and will continue throughout the day. The search is taking place in Calaveras County.If you have information or questions call Calaveras Sheriff's Office at 209-754-6500.Original Post- Late Friday evening, 75 year old Leroy Del Don was reported missing by a family member after he departed from an airstrip near Patterson in his personal airplane and failed to arrive at Columbia Airport.The Sheriff's Office was told Leroy has extensive flying experience and has been flying for over 40 years. He is a flight instructor and has no known medical issues.Leroy was going to fly directly to Columbia Airport, which he has done numerous times, and then drive to Pinecrest in a vehicle that was waiting for him in the hangar.His plane is a twin engine 1967 Beechcraft Baron 55, beige in color with an orange stripe on the tail. When Leroy did not arrive in Pinecrest as planned, his wife became worried and had a friend check the hangar at Columbia Airport for the plane. The plane was not there, however the vehicle was.Leroy Del Don's airplane was last tracked by Air Force Rescue to a mountainous location in Calaveras County. The Tuolumne County Sheriff's Office Search and Rescue Team are assisting the Calaveras Sheriff's Office with their search efforts.If anyone has seen Leroy or the plane described, please call the Calaveras Sheriff's Office at 209-754-6500.Leroy is 5'11" tall, 187 pounds with gray hair and blue eyes. PATTERSON, Calif. (KCRA) — A pilot was reported missing after his plane took off from an airstrip in Patterson and didn't arrive at an Tuolumne County airport, sheriff's officials said. Leroy Del Don, 75, was reported missing Friday evening by a family member after he departed from an airstrip near Patterson in his personal plan and never arrived at Columbia Airport, according to the Tuolumne County Sheriff's Office.Del Don's airplane, a beige twin-engine 1967 Beechcraft Baron 55, was last tracked by Air Force rescue to a mountainous location in the Calaveras County town of Mountain Ranch before disappearing from radar, investigators said.Del Don planned to fly directly to Columbia Airport, which he has done numerous times, and get into a vehicle waiting for him at the hangar and drive to Pinecrest.When Del Don didn't arrive in Pinecrest as planned, his wife became worried and had a friend check the hanger, where they found the vehicle, but Del Don's plane wasn't there, the sheriff's office said.Del Don has extensive flying experience and has been flying for more than 40 years. He is a flight instructor and has no known medical issues.The sheriff's offices from Tuolumne and Calaveras counties are working together in the search for Del Don.He is described as 5 feet 11 inches tall, weighing 187 pounds with gray hair and blue eyes, deputies said.Anyone with information about Del Don's plane is asked to call the Calaveras County Sheriff's Office at 209-754-6500.

Original article can be found here: http://www.kcra.comThe search continues for a man who flew out from a private airstrip near Grayson on Friday afternoon but did not arrive at his destination, the Columbia Airport. Search and rescue teams from the sheriff’s offices in Calaveras, Tuolumne and Amador counties, as well as aircraft from the California Highway Patrol and Civil Air Patrol, are searching a rural area of Calaveras County, that Sheriff’s Office reported Monday morning.Late Friday evening, 75-year-old Leroy Del Don, a farmer on Stanislaus County’s West Side, was reported missing. He was going to fly directly to Columbia Airport, which he has done numerous times, and then drive to Pinecrest in a vehicle that was waiting for him in the Columbia hanger, according to the Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Office.When he did not arrive in Pinecrest as planned, his wife became worried and had a friend check the Columbia hanger. The plane was not there, but the vehicle was.The plane is a twin-engine, propeller-driven 1967 Beechcraft Baron. It is beige with brown and orange striping and the tail number N3717Q.The aircraft appears to have traveled over Columbia Airport and through Calaveras County before disappearing from radar west of Mountain Ranch, according to the Calaveras Sheriff’s Office.The Tuolumne County Sheriff's Office was told that Del Don has extensive flying experience and has been flying for over 40 years. He is a flight instructor and has no known medical issues.Anyone who heard or saw the plane or a similar plane during Friday afternoon is urged to contact the Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office at 209-754-6500 and speak with dispatch.Original article can be found here: http://www.sacbee.com

Location: Carpinteria, CAAccident Number: WPR17LA124Date & Time: 06/10/2017, 1430 PDTRegistration: N2171DAircraft: PIPER PA28Aircraft Damage: SubstantialDefining Event: VFR encounter with IMCInjuries: 1 SeriousFlight Conducted Under: Part 91: General Aviation - Personal On June 10, 2017, about 1430 Pacific daylight time, a Piper PA28-161 airplane, N2171D, was substantially damaged following impact with terrain while maneuvering in instrument meteorological conditions about 4 nautical miles (nm) northeast of Carpinteria, California. The non-instrument rated private pilot was seriously injured. The airplane was owned and operated by National Air College International Inc., San Diego, California. The personal cross-country flight was being operated in accordance with Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91, and no flight plan had been filed. The pilot departed Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport (MFY), San Diego, California, about 1100, and was destined for Santa Ynez Airport (IZA), Santa Ynez, California.In a report submitted to the National Transportation Safety Board investigator-in-charge, the pilot reported that the coastline was covered in overcast clouds, and over Santa Barbara (SBA), California, about 19 nm west-northwest of the accident site, the clouds were at 2,200 ft above ground level (agl). The pilot stated that due to the clouds, he began to descend to get the ground in sight, but at 2,100 ft agl he was still in a thick cloud and could not see outside. The pilot reported that after he failed to make a decision to climb or contact air traffic control for assistance, he crashed into a mountain ridge. The airplane came to rest upright on a westerly heading with its left wing bent back at mid-span.The pilot was able to contact emergency responders by cell phone. Search and rescue personnel located the downed airplane and rescued the pilot by helicopter about 1700. A strong presence of fuel was detected at the accident site. The pilot reported no mechanical anomalies with the airplane or engine prior to or during the flight that would have precluded normal operations.The weather reporting facility at SBA, located about 19 nm west of the accident site, revealed a ceiling of 2,800 ft agl about 35 minutes prior to the accident, and a ceiling of 2,600 ft agl about 20 minutes following the accident. Winds were reported out of the south and southwest from 6 to 7 knots.

NTSB Identification: WPR17LA124 14 CFR Part 91: General AviationAccident occurred Saturday, June 10, 2017 in Carpinteria, CAAircraft: PIPER PA28, registration: N2171DInjuries: 1 Serious.This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed. NTSB investigators may not have traveled in support of this investigation and used data provided by various sources to prepare this aircraft accident report.On June 10, 2017, about 1430 Pacific daylight time, a Piper PA28, N2171D, was substantially damaged following impact with terrain while maneuvering about 4 nautical miles (nm) northeast of Carpinteria, California. The private pilot, the sole occupant, was seriously injured. The airplane was owned and operated by National Air College International Inc., San Diego, California. The personal cross-country flight was operating under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91, and no flight plan had been filed. The pilot departed Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport (MFY), San Diego, California, about 1100, with the destination reported as the Santa Ynez Airport (IZA), Santa Ynez, California.In a report submitted to the National Transportation Safety Board investigator-in-charge, the pilot reported that the coastline was covered in overcast clouds, and over Santa Barbara (SBA), about 19 nm west-northwest of the accident site, the clouds were at 2,200 ft above ground level (agl). The pilot stated that due to the clouds, he began to descend to get the ground in sight, but at 2,100 ft agl he was still in a thick cloud and could not see outside. The pilot concluded by saying that after he failed to make a decision to climb or contact air traffic control for assistance, he crashed into a mountain ridge. The airplane came to rest upright on a westerly heading with its left wing bent back at mid-span.The pilot was able to contact emergency responders by cell phone. Search and rescue personnel located the downed airplane and rescued the pilot by helicopter about 1700. A strong presence of fuel was detected at the accident site. The pilot reported no mechanical anomalies with the airplane prior to or during the flight that would have precluded normal operations.The weather reporting facility at SBA revealed a ceiling of 2,800 ft agl about 35 minutes prior to the accident, and a ceiling of 2,700 feet agl about 20 minutes following the accident. Winds were reported out of the south and southwest at about 7 knots.

A pilot is recovering from his injuries after the small plane he was flying in went down on Saturday, June 10, 2017, in a remote area of the Los Padres National Forest near the Santa Barbara/Ventura County line. At approximately 2:28 p.m., the 31-year-old Korean pilot, who was flying solo, managed to call 911 from his cell phone to report that he had crashed. Ventura County Fire dispatchers through their conversation with the injured pilot were able to determine his GPS coordinates and pinpoint his location.The Santa Barbara County Public Safety Dispatch Center was contacted and confirmed that the single-engine Piper Cherokee plane had departed from the Santa Barbara Airport approximately 20 minutes prior to notification of the crash. The aircraft was based out of San Diego. The Personnel from the Carpinteria-Summerland Fire Protection District, Montecito Fire Protection District, and Ventura County Fire Department responded but because of the remote location and dense vegetation were not able to access the scene.The Santa Barbara County Sheriff/Fire Air Support Unit and the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue (SBCSAR) team were deployed. The Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Team and Carpinteria Fire personnel were in the process of sending crews to hike down from Divide Peak and also to send an SBCSAR crew to hike up from Rincon Canyon to the crash site. Fortunately, the low cloud layer held off just enough for two Santa Barbara County Sheriff/Fire helicopters to access the area. Copter 2 responded to locate the crash site and once the location was confirmed, Copter 3 was called into effect the rescue. Santa Barbara County Fire Aircrew Paramedics aboard Copter 3 were lowered on a hoist down to the injured pilot. They initiated patient care and extricated the pilot from the plane. He was hoisted up to Copter 3 and transported to a local hospital with serious injuries. The successful recovery of the subject by Air Support averted a potentially all night operation by ground personnel. The Federal Aviation Administration is conducting an investigation into the cause of the crash.After the large search and on our way back to our station, SBCSAR was paged out to the report of a plane down in the wilderness area behind Carpinteria. Our team members responded to both Divide Peak Rd and to the intersection of Hwy 150 and Rincon Hill Rd. to coordinate with other responding agencies. Plans were made to insert additional SAR personnel with extrication equipment should the rescuers at the crash site need additional help to get the pilot out of the wreckage.The pilot was hoisted out and transported to Cottage Hospital. Single engine plane crash within Los Padres Forest boundaries near Jameson Lake. Responders have staged a helicopter to find the exact location in Carpinteria.Read more here: https://www.edhat.comA 31-year-old pilot was rescued after the small plane he was flying crashed Saturday in Los Padres National Forest near Carpinteria, officials said. A report of an downed airplane came in just after 2:30 p.m. near Jameson Lake as the aircraft traveled from the Santa Barbara Airport, according to Battalion Chief Michael Gallagher of the Carpinteria-Summerland Fire Protection District. The Federal Aviation Administration said the plane departed from the San Diego area for Santa Ynez, according to The Associated Press.Crews got longitude and latitude coordinates of the crash site after Ventura County fire dispatchers relayed from Camarillo Airport air traffic controllers that the crash was confirmed, Gallagher said.Based on the coordinates, crews knew the crash site was in a remote area of the forest not accessible by four-wheel drive, Gallagher said. Search-and-rescue teams were deployed to hike in and a helicopter was used to help find the crash site, Gallagher said. The site was found and a medical crew was able to hoist down into the area despite earlier concerns of low clouds, Gallagher said. The crew found the male pilot alive with serious injuries to his legs, Gallagher said. He was treated on the scene, then hoisted back into the helicopter, which took him to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, Gallagher said. He was the only person in the plane. The Santa Barbara County Fire Department and Santa Barbara Sheriff's Office responded to the incident and the Ventura County Fire Department was called in to assist. It was the third crash of a small plane in the region in recent days. A plane broke up in the air on June 1 north of Ventura and crashed, killing the pilot, Michael Brannigan, of Lake Sherwood. Then on June 4, father and son James Harlan, 57, and Dylan Harlan, 15, both of Calabasas, were killed when a small plane crashed in the Santa Rosa Valley.

Jim Armstrong of Green Lane holds the registration number from Paul H. Maguire's Great Lakes Special aircraft. Armstrong knew Maguire and his plane well from the old Montgomeryville Airport. Armstrong's Gray African parrot, April, perches on his shoulder.

The flier made his plane dance in the sky, but couldn't keep it from tearing apart in mid-air. One minute spectators were cheering Paul H. Maguire's aerobatic artistry, and the next, they were pulling his body from the twisted wreck of his prize Great Lakes Special vintage biplane, on May 14, 1968.Maguire, 51, was something of a showman, an insurance executive from Abington Township with a taste for the wild blue yonder. He hangared his plane at the old Montgomeryville Airport, where, every time he took off, he barrel-rolled his jaunty red, white and blue craft for the benefit of onlookers. He was flying a piece of history from the early days of barnstorming, under wings that had lofted Tex Rankin and Dorothy Hester, two of the best-known and accomplished pilots of the early days of aerobatics. The biplane was famous for looping and spinning through southwestern skies at air shows in the 1930s.Now Maguire's plane, nearly demolished as it was, has yet to land for the last time. To the amazement of aviation buffs who knew the pilot or witnessed the crash, a museum in Oregon is restoring the historic craft to airworthiness.

"Holy moley!" exclaimed Emil DiMotta, a retired NADC test pilot who saw the accident and in recent years wrote movingly about it on the Naval History Blog."Wow!" said Vern Moyer, an aviator who worked at the Montgomeryville Airport and knew Maguire and his plane well."I was astonished," said Jim Armstrong of Green Lane, a former attendant at the airport who had many times hand-started the prop on Maguire's plane and who took a close look at the wreckage months after the crash. "What wasn't destroyed was bent, broken or distorted," he recalled."My understanding was, they were going to put it in the dump and it would have been paved over when they built the Airport Square Shopping Center."To serious students of flying history, N315Y is a precious artifact, not fodder for a landfill. "It's not done forever, we're bringing it back," said restorer Tim Talen of the Oregon Aviation Historical Society in Cottage Grove, Oregon. The aircraft was built in 1931 as a showpiece for Princess Knock-a-Hole-in-the-Sky, otherwise known as Dorothy Hester, an Oregon woman who set records for maneuvers such as the Outside Loop and the Inverted Snap Roll in the 1930s. After the princess traded her flying helmet for a bridal veil in 1934, her even more famous teacher, Tex Rankin, acquired the plane and used it to entertain at air shows and salute wartime flight trainees with skywriting.

Maguire bought the plane in 1963, by which time he had been flying aerobatics for decades. The day of the crash, he was rehearsing for an air show at the Naval Air Development Center. The pilot had executed one flawless Square Loop, a stressful maneuver that involved steep climbs and dives, when Philadelphia TV newsman Tom Snyder asked him to do another for the camera.Seconds later, "It looked to me like he lost power for just a fraction of a second, and the plane dipped like it was going over a hump, and when he pulled up, all of a sudden the wing snapped," recalled Ronald Hari of Middletown, a physicist at the air base who saw the whole incident.The TV film captured the disintegration of the upper and lower right wings, which wrapped around the fuselage as Maguire fought to control the plane. Witnesses recall the craft falling as if in slow motion. Pieces of wood, metal, fabric and paint crumbled off and showered on horrified watchers.It was the last flight of a highly skilled aviator, who left a widow and teenage daughter. The plane was hauled back to the Montgomeryville Airport, where it moldered in a hangar. According to Talen, the plane's revival began when plans for amateur builders became available from the manufacturer, the Great Lakes Aircraft Company, in the late 1970s or early 1980s. A hobbyist bought Maguire's plane, used it for a building project and eventually put it on the market in the mid-1990s. Talen saw an advertisement for the craft in an aviation publication and felt the museum would "desperately love to have that," he recalled. "We carefully looked it over (to make sure) that it truly was a correct airplane. You'd hate to buy a ringer."The society bought the plane and hauled it back from Pennsylvania.Restorers pored through aviation records and established that certain details were the work of Tex Rankin. Traces of the original red, white and blue paint remained under decades of modifications by various owners. The museum raised money for the restoration by soliciting donations, many from people who had seen Rankin's air shows.These were aviation spectaculars. Rankin, who died in 1947 at age 53, set a world record for consecutive Outside Loops, executing 131 in a demonstration in 1931. He was a top instructor for civilian and military pilots, other stunt fliers and movie stars such as James Stewart and Errol Flynn. Rankin spent so much of his flying time inverted, his name was painted on the fuselage upside-down.As you might expect, he was king of the flyboys, and was reputed to have zoomed through a hangar that had both doors open. "I'm questioning that story, but he was good, nonetheless," said Talen.Hester was the darling of the skies, so proficient that she was invited to perform in the National Air Races while still in her teens. Rankin, her teacher, dealt in Great Lakes stunt planes and convinced the company to build her a craft of her own. The 19-year-old flier picked up her gift from the factory in Cleveland in 1931.

"She always talked lovingly about her Great Lakes Special," said Talen, who spoke with her while researching the plane. " 'But it crashed out on the East Coast, and it'll never come back.' She said that with a tear in her eye," he recalled. The pioneering woman pilot died in 1991 at the age of 80.Two years before Maguire's fatal crash, his plane's right wing was damaged when the plane flipped over in a cornfield. He repaired the craft, but critical damage to a spar went undetected. An investigation concluded that the subsequent years of taxing aerobatic maneuvers had weakened the part and caused the crash in 1968.On that day, the plane set another world record, this one tragic.An article praising Great Lakes aircraft published in a 1970 issue of Flying Magazine contains an intriguing passage that seems to describe the Warminster crash.The author mentions a plane with a 265-horsepower Continental engine "as well as the sad distinction of being the only Great Lakes ever to have come apart in the air when the top wing let go at the bottom of a square loop." The writer omits the pilot's name, but describes Maguire's craft and accident to a T. Moyer was aware of the Great Lakes' reputation for durability. When he heard about the accident in 1968, "The main surprise was that the airplane came apart," he said.Yet the plane's reputation was borne out, to a degree. Major parts of the mangled aircraft held up even after hitting the ground nose first at a 70-degree angle."The left wing top and bottom really has no damage, just the right wing, and the tail surfaces were unscathed. We are using those tail surfaces," said Talen, who salvaged every airworthy part he could. New wings have been built, incorporating historic fittings and some of the internal ribs. The fuselage also is new. Many other parts have been replaced in earlier modifications, as well as in the current work. Talen estimates about 25 percent of the original craft will be incorporated into the fully restored plane.

He hopes to take the pilot's seat himself in a few months. "The plan loosely is to fly it, and to fly it to various air shows," he said. "I have visions of taking it to the big air show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. After a couple of years, it will probably get retired and just get put in the museum."The effort coincides with renewed interest in Maguire, whose fatal crash was filmed, aired on TV that evening, and then all but disappeared from local history. Tom Concannon of Quakertown wants to change that.Concannon was stationed in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1968, during the height of the Vietnam War. He never knew of the crash in Warminster until he read about it in this news organization's report in April. He proposes placing a memorial stone in a garden maintained by the Fleet Reserve Association, an organization of retired enlisted Navy personnel, at the former Willow Grove Naval Air Station.Other pilots who died in air shows are memorialized there, Concannon said. "He's one of the guys we missed. Nobody ever brought it up," he said. "I think the guy deserves some recognition."Today, even his granddaughters know little about Maguire, who died long before they were born. But he cut a dashing figure and cultivated a flying-ace image to go with his distinguished plane."He almost seemed like a pilot from the past," said Moyer, who knew Maguire from Montgomeryville Airport. "He was the kind of guy you looked up to, a nice guy. He took chances, of course, any time an aerobatics pilot flies close to the ground, you're taking chances."DiMotta vividly remembers Maguire, between the first and second flights on his last day, climbing out of his plane with a white silk scarf at his neck "like he has just stepped out of a barnstorming magazine from the 1930s," he recalled in early April.Armstrong cherishes a rectangle of white canvas painted with red numerals, the tail numbers from N315Y. Nearly 50 years ago, as the Great Lakes lay banished from the sky where it had frolicked for so long, he cut the letters from the plane's rudder as a souvenir of its fallen pilot."A reminder of better days," he said.Story and photo gallery: http://www.theintell.com

The National Transportation Safety Board did not travel to the scene of this accident.Additional Participating Entity:Federal Aviation Administration / Flight Standards District Office; Miramar, FloridaAviation Accident Preliminary Report - National Transportation Safety Board: https://app.ntsb.gov/pdfHover Corporation: http://registry.faa.gov/N881AVNTSB Identification: ERA17LA20214 CFR Part 91: General AviationAccident occurred Saturday, June 10, 2017 in Tamiami, FLAircraft: CESSNA 172P, registration: N881AVInjuries: 2 Uninjured.This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed. NTSB investigators may not have traveled in support of this investigation and used data provided by various sources to prepare this aircraft accident report.On June 10, 2017, about 1050 eastern daylight time, a Cessna 172P, N881AV, was substantially damaged during a forced landing following a partial loss of engine power during initial climb from Miami Executive Airport (TMB), Tamiami, Florida. The flight instructor and student pilot, were not injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and no flight plan was filed for the local instructional flight operated under the provisions of Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91.According to the flight instructor, prior to the accident flight, the airplane was refueled. He observed his student taking fuel samples to test for contaminants and none were present. They also checked the rest of the aircraft to complete the preflight inspection.The airplane's engine was started using the checklist. It was a normal start with the gauges indicating in the green range showing that the engine was ok. They taxied out from the parking ramp, exited the ramp at "Spot 12," and then continued taxiing to Runway 9L via taxiway "Delta." During the taxi, they did not notice any issues with the airplane.During the runup they followed the items on the checklist. The flight controls were working correctly, and the engine run up was completed without any problems. Both magnetos had two normal drops in rpm. When carburetor heat was applied, they had a normal drop in rpm, both with power on the engine and with the throttle pulled back to idle.The flight instructor asked the student to demonstrate a soft field takeoff. The student then selected ten degrees of flaps, they received their takeoff clearance, and then started their takeoff roll. During the takeoff, they had normal engine indications and their airspeed started to climb. The student pilot then kept the aircraft in ground effect to build airspeed as they were simulating takeoff from a grass strip or rough field. At approximately 80 knots the student pilot started to climb out from ground effect. He then retracted the flaps at 200 ft. Up to this point, all indications were normal.At approximately 350 ft the flight instructor heard a slight decrease in engine power, he then looked at the student's right hand and asked him if he was guarding the throttle, and he responded that he was. The power then came back. Then, at approximately 400 ft they had another loss of power, this time it was significant, as it went down to 1,900 rpm and it was fluctuating. The flight instructor then took the control of the airplane and started to look for forced landing options. After taking the controls, the power then dropped to 1,100 rpm and continued to fluctuate. At this point they had no available runway remaining and were losing altitude so the flight instructor decided to land the airplane in a grass field that was on the airport property. On touchdown, the flight instructor reported that the airplane's braking was very poor, and even with the use of aerodynamic braking the airplane felt to him like it was skidding. The airplane then struck a tree with the left wing, then the airport security fence and came to a stop. The flight instructor and student pilot then shut everything off, including the fuel, and egressed.Examination of the accident site revealed that, the aircraft touched down in the grass about 200 ft past the end of Runway 9L, and then rolled about 1/4 of a mile, before impacting the tree and then the security fence. The grass was wet due to recent heavy rain. Tire marks were visible in the grass at various points from where the airplane touched down, to the tree, indicating where the flight instructor had attempted to use brakes to slow the airplane.Examination of the wreckage revealed that, the left wing had contacted the tree first with the landing and taxi light assembly which was mounted on the leading edge. Further examination revealed that the right wingtip fairing was broken from impact with the fence, and the upper wing skins were wrinkled from the fuel tank filler caps, outward to the wingtips. The spinner and propeller were also damaged from impact with the fence.A postaccident test run of the engine was performed under the supervision of a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspector with the engine cowling removed and the engine was completely exposed. Prior to the test run, the fuel was sampled, and the oil was checked. Neither showed any signs of contamination and were at appropriate levels.During the first engine run, the engine was started and operated for 8 minutes, 2 minutes of which were at idle, simulating a taxi from the parking ramp to the runway. The engine was then operated for 6 minutes simulating the run-up and takeoff and was then shutdown. The engine was then started and operated again for 8 more minutes and then shutdown. During the engine runs, the engine ran without hesitation and displayed no evidence of any anomalies that would have prevented normal operation.According to FAA airman and pilot records, the flight instructor held a commercial pilot certificate with ratings for airplane single-engine land, and instrument airplane. He also possessed a flight instructor certificate with ratings for airplane single-engine and instrument airplane. His most recent FAA first-class medical certificate was issued on May 8, 2017. He reported that he had accrued 1,488 total hours of flight experience, 1,449 of which were in the accident airplane make and model.According to FAA airman and pilot records, the student pilot held a student pilot certificate. His most recent FAA third-class medical certificate was issued on August 5, 2015. He reported that he had accrued 95 total hours of flight experience, all of which were in the accident airplane make and model.According to FAA airworthiness and airplane maintenance records, the airplane was manufactured in 1983. The airplane's most recent annual inspection was completed on April 19, 2017. At the time of the inspection, the airplane had accrued approximately 12,828.1 total hours of operation, and the engine had accrued approximately 1,165.9 total hours of operation since major overhaul.

MIAMI (CBSMiami) — Two people were able to walk away safely from a frightening flight in southwest Miami-Dade.On Saturday, a Cessna C-172 was forced to make a “hard landing” at Miami Executive Airport, formerly known as Kendall-Tamiami Airport. The plane came to rest up against the fence that lines the airport premises.The strange sight caused traffic to back up on 137th Avenue, near 128th Street, in both directions.Miami-Dade Fire Rescue said neither the pilot nor passenger were hurt.The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating what happened.Original article can be found here: http://miami.cbslocal.comSOUTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) - A small plane lost power shortly after takeoff and crashed into a fence in Southwest Miami-Dade, Saturday morning.According to a spokesperson for Miami Executive Airport, the aircraft slid into a grassy area after losing power and wheeled into the chain-link fence, near Lindgren Road and Southwest 136th Street.Two people were on board, but they walked away uninjured.The plane pushed part of the fence slightly forward, but the damage appears to be minor.Story and video: http://wsvn.com

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A pilot who was flying a banner for CMA Fest was not injured when he made an emergency landing by the interstate.

The small plane went down Saturday in the median of the Interstate 40/Interstate 65 loop west of Nashville.The pilot, identified as Wayne Mansfield, has been flying aerial banners for 52 years. He said he could tell by the way the engine was sputtering that the plane had experienced an exhaust valve failure.In those situations, Mansfield said they’re trained to look for a safe place to land.“When these things happen, you get prepared for this. You’re trained,” Mansfield said.Saturday was day two of flying for the CMA Fest, and Mansfield had a banner that said “Meet Lady Antebellum” with a number to text.He had been up for a couple of hours when the emergency happened, and he looked for a place to land. He said the first and most important rule has always been to find a safe place that does not risk the safety or property of the public.“I maneuvered the airplane so that I could bring the banner to a place where I could drop it, and then I had a couple of options and I apparently chose the good one,” Mansfield said. “I came in across that embankment, between those poles, and managed to land the airplane just above the embankment and then turn it to come down here and stop.”Mansfield said no damage was done. He added the plane would be fixed and would be back up in the air.According to Mansfield, he has won several awards for his work with safety. “It would be very embarrassing if this had ended up differently,” Mansfield said.The incident happened around 2 p.m. Saturday and backed up traffic in that area for a while. Crews said it would take a couple hours to clear the scene.Original article can be found here: http://www.newschannel5.com

Wayne Mansfield was circling downtown Nashville in a small, fixed-wing airplane on Saturday afternoon when he felt the engine sputter.The plane — hauling a CMA Fest banner encouraging "Meet Lady Antebellum text CMA to 31996" — suffered an engine failure, he said. Mansfield began looking for his best landing options. He found it where Interstate 65 meets the Interstate 40 downtown loop, near Jefferson Street.Mansfield, who lives near Boston, said he dropped the banner and steered the aircraft over an embankment and between two poles before he came to a stop in a grassy median where the interstates meet."I was still going around in circles downtown. I wasn’t trying to come here that’s for sure," he said later, standing beside his aircraft, cars buzzing by."I didn’t have a lot of choices," he said. "I maneuvered the airplane, picked my spot and landed in it."The emergency landing happened about 2:15 p.m. The fixed-wing, single-engine airplane was manufactured in 1987, according to Federal Aviation Administration records. Mansfield said a repair crew would be routed to remove the plane and make repairs.He reported no injuries, and no hard feelings about Nashville even despite the aviation mishap."I was here last year flying around, it was wonderful," he said. "That’s why I wanted to come back. Nashville is wonderful city, it’s full of wonderful people, welcoming people."Story, video and photo gallery: http://www.tennessean.com